A Weather Complexity Complaint

     Watching the forecast on Alabama News Network Tuesday night, I was again struck by what a crappy job the National Weather Service did a few years back when they came up with new categories of severe weather warnings.

MARGINAL 
SLIGHT 
ENHANCED 
MODERATE 
HIGH

     The only two that make any sense to the average viewer are SLIGHT and HIGH.
I'm not a meteorologist (though I played on on radio and TV in Birmingham) but these categories seem to have been developed with the intent to confuse. The words are much less than clear.

ENHANCED could be more than MODERATE.
SLIGHT could be less THAN MARGINAL.
MODERATE could be less than.... 

Did they actually do research and audience testing on this terrible system? 
I don't know. 
Did they consult the American Meteorological Society---the association of professional weather forecasters on TV and elsewhere? 
I don't know. 
     There doesn't appear to be any information about the NWS categories on the AMS website.
     The categories appear to be the creation of a committee with too much time on their hands, and too little guidance from the people who actually warn people.